Chapter 6 - Shattered Documents
Chief Miller burst out from the side hallway, hand resting on his service revolver, accompanied by two deputies. His face was flushed with righteous indignation as he pointed a finger directly at my chest.
"Elias Vance! You are under arrest for trespassing, disturbing the peace, and conspiring against municipal property!" Miller barked, stepping forward. "Put your hands behind your back or we will use maximum force!"
I didn't blink. I didn't raise my voice. I simply raised two fingers, and Marcus stepped out from behind my security detail, holding a thick leather briefcase stamped with federal seal emblems and the private watermark of the Crown syndicate.
"Before you reach for your cuffs, Chief Miller," I said, my voice carrying effortlessly across the cavernous ballroom, "you might want to examine Warrant 44-B issued thirty minutes ago by the Federal District Court of New York."
Miller sneered. "I don't care about federal warrants from New York! This is my jurisdiction! Arrest him!"
"Is it your jurisdiction, Chief?" Marcus asked smoothly, opening the briefcase and pulling out certified financial records. "Because according to these wire receipts from Swiss Bank Zurich, your offshore account in the Cayman Islands received two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Sterling Capital yesterday afternoon. That constitutes federal bribery and obstruction of justice."
Color drained entirely from Miller's face. He stumbled backward, his hand slipping away from his holster. "That... that's fabricated..."
"Fabricated?" A cool, clear voice rang out from the grand double doors. Every head snapped around.
Claire stood in the doorway, supported by Dr. Mercer on one side, wrapped in my black cashmere coat. Her face was pale, but her eyes burned with an unyielding fire. She walked steadily into the center of the marble foyer, pulled a stack of crisp legal documents from beneath her arm, and looked directly at her mother and sister, who had just appeared on the staircase above.
Paige gasped, clutching her chest. "Claire?! How are you out of the hospital? You were supposed to—"
"Be frozen in the snow?" Claire interrupted, her voice ringing clear and sharp as crystal. "To quietly die so you and Mother could steal my father's legacy? Is that what you planned, Paige?"
Vivian descended the stairs, her composure shattering into desperate fury. "You ungrateful little bitch! You signed nothing! That estate belongs to this family, not to some deadbeat husband and his delusions!"
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"This estate belonged to my father," Claire said coldly. She gripped the official deed transfer papers Vivian had tried to force her to sign the night before. With deliberate, crushing force, Claire tore the papers directly down the middle, ripping them into fluttering shards of confetti that drifted slowly down onto the marble floor.
Vivian shrieked in horror, lunging forward like a cornered animal, but my security detail stepped smoothly between them, blocking her path with immovable authority.
